The Power of Pricing in Your Travels
September 25th, 2008 Posted in Beers of the World, Travel bargains, Vacation deals
There are three main variables that influence the cost of your vacation or travels, but the biggest one is where you go. I am pondering that right now as I travel through Iceland. This is a wonderful, magical place, but be sure your back account is full upon arrival.
This Viking beer, pictured here, will set you back around $8 in a bar. It used to be over $10, but the dollar (and the euro too) has appreciated against the local currency, so things are not as ugly as a year ago.
It’s a decent beer, but nothing special. It’s not any better than the 75-cent beer in Panama or the $1 or less ones you’ll find in some 30+ countries around the world. It doesn’t hold up well compared to the awesome $1.50 beers you’ll drink in the Czech Republic.
It’s not all about the beer, of course, but if a beer in one place is six or eight times what it costs in another place, you can bet hotels, taxi rides, museum admissions, and meals will also cost far, far more as well.
More on Iceland later though, beyond the prices. Great photos to come…
4 Responses to “The Power of Pricing in Your Travels”
By Renato on Sep 26, 2008
Talking about the price of a pint there is a website:
http://www.pintprice.com
that claims to have “the price of beer in 206 countries.” Should we use it before travelling on a shoestring?
By jamie on Sep 27, 2008
This post made me remember a very funny article I read years and years ago called “Shaefernomics” which suggested that the U.S., as a nation, measure all prospective spending (like on the Strategic Defense Initiative) in terms cheap beer.
Enjoy those Icelandic beverages. And sip.
By Joe on Sep 29, 2008
Tim,
I was stationed in Iceland with NATO in the early 90s and even then it was bloody expensive. So expensive that the Icelandic Customs authorities monitored and routinely searched our vehicles as we left base to ensure we weren’t taking an “excessive” amount of duty-free and subsidized goods out on the economy for black-market/grey-market re-sale. A “nice ” evening out in Reyjavik – even in 1990/1991 – was liable to run up to $100 USD per couple without alcohol. While I enjoyed my time there, and remember the people and the environment fondly, it has never been somewhere I would purposely choose to return to again due to the prohibitive cost of food, lodging and transport.
By NewWrldYankee on Oct 9, 2008
Actually recently, it seems like the Icelandic kroner is falling like crazy. For the first time, my Icelandic friends have had to borrow money from family and self-support as the gov’t can’t afford to do as much as before.